Ezra Cornell gave his farm, wealth and industry to establish Cornell University - New York State's land grant university. The little known story is his investment in 500,000 acres of land grant scrip in Northern Wisconsin – one of the most successful land speculation deals in US history – and the impact this had on the university, Wisconsin, and a small town on the banks of the Chippewa River – 900 miles from Ithaca, New York – that bears his name. Looks like I'm heading north.

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1.06.2011

Another Cornell

Cornell staff member and Cornell trivia aficionado, Corey Ryan Earle '07 sent me an email (on my birthday) noting another Cornell – this one in California. He received a newspaper clipping (maybe circa 1900) which he deciphered below.

MAN OF MANY HONORS

Mayor of Cornell, Postmaster, Deputy Sheriff, Justice of Peace,

and a Few Other Things.

For the present Nathan Wise, founder and Mayor of the town of Cornell, in

the Santa Monica Mountains, fifty-three miles from Los Angeles and fifteen

miles from a railroad, will accept no more honors.

Wise, who is at the [?], is postmaster of Cornell, Deputy Sheriff, treasurer

of the Cornell [?] Improvement Association, justice of the peace and volunteer

fireman, and was Santa Claus at the Christmas tree entertainment. Recently

he was asked to become a member of the board of school trustees, but declined

with thanks.

Wise founded the town two years ago, immediately after an artesian well of

hot mineral water was struck on the property of the [Ramera?] Oil Company.

The settlement was named after Cornell University. It now has a population

of forty families.

The precise location is a Town of Cornell south of Agoura Hills (and north of Malibu). Anice neighborhood. When there you can stop off at Cornell's Old Place Restaurant or the Cornell Winery. I imagine the drive down Cornell Road between the Ventura and Mulholland Highways is as scenic as the hills of the Finger Lakes.

I’ll continue to pursue this lead. I have yet to discover Nathan Wise’s connection to Cornell University that would inspire him to name the town for Cornell.

And while I have not performed an exhaustive search for all Cornell names on the planet there is a planet (ok, astroid) named for Cornell.

4 comments:

Dan Mansoor
said...

Cornell alumna Luanne Tesoriero '66 wrote to me,...

Cornell Club of LA visited the Cornell winery. We were told from two different sources that the founders of the original Cornell schoolhouse wrote a letter to Ezra Cornell, asking for money to buy schoolbooks. In honor of Ezra, the school & town were named Cornell.

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